Recent news

According to new research by the Independent Schools Health Education Unit, 4% of 12 to 13 year olds claimed they drank over 28 units every week.

The results were taken from 83,724 young people across 1,100 UK primary and secondary schools.

Each pupil was asked more than 100 health-related questions about their school, home and social activities.

Despite the alarming amount that some children claimed to drink, the good news is that most children showed no interest whatsoever in drinking or getting drunk. In fact, compared with previous surveys, the number of children drinking more than 10 units a week is decreasing.

British treasure Stephen Fry is officially handed the torch, as he becomes mental health charity Mind’s new president.

Fry is famed for many reasons – his acting, his comedy, his writing, his general intelligence, and his incredible ability with words.

If ever there was a person who could accurately articulate the ordeal of living with a mental health problem it is Fry, which is what makes him such a utterly brilliant new president for Mind.

Fry has experienced a very long and public battle with bi-polar disorder. Back in the mid-nineties, Fry famously walked out of a West End play after which he disappeared off the radar and was feared dead. It was later revealed that after coming very close to gassing himself in his car, he fled to Belgium where he was later found.

2006 marked the release of an extremely powerful documentary, ‘The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive’, in which Fry spoke very honestly about his experiences of...

According to a YouGov survey conducted on behalf of Macmillan Cancer, a large percentage of cancer patients are troubled by their current financial status, with some even sacrificing meals in a bid to save money.

Cancer is a very expensive disease to treat, not only for the NHS but also for the patients themselves.

As it stands there is a web of financial support in position so that patients who are unable to work whilst undergoing treatment receive Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). However, even with this financial provision, many patients are still finding that it is simply not enough to cover their basic living costs. In addition, the government are considering making some changes to the Welfare Reform Bill, putting thousands of cancer patients at risk of losing out on ESA.

According to the survey of 1,550 patients, 17% of those facing financial woe felt forced to cut back on everyday essentials such as food, 5% reported skipping...

Patti Alder, professor of sociology at the University of Colorado and co-author of ‘The Tender Cut’, has spent the last 10 years studying self-harm alongside her husband Peter.

According to the professors, the idea of self-harm was ‘unfathomable’ prior to 1982. It wasn’t until a student of Peter’s admitted to his own self-harming habit, that the couple began to take an academic interest in what was gradually becoming a cultural phenomenon.

In 2000, the two finally decided to launch a project that would, in 11 years time, become a published book.

Over a period of 10 years, the Alders interviewed 135 self-harmers, 50% of which were teenagers. Results showed that the majority of self-harmers tended to give up the habit before the end of their 20s. According to Patti, “there tends to be a natural turning point where people drop off. As you get older, there are fewer self harmers.”

Police are investigating reports that Steven Walker, a 28 year old barman from Cumnock in Scotland, was beaten and burned to death because he was gay.

Walker’s body was found on an industrial estate roadside at around 05:00 on Saturday morning. The victim is said to have endured ‘horrible injuries’ after the attacker or attackers tied him to a lamppost and beat him, before setting him alight.

Strathclyde Police are looking into all areas of the young man’s life following reports that the unknown attacker or attackers could have been driven by homophobia.

It has emerged that Walker, described as ‘the life and soul of the party’, was due to attend his Grandmother’s 80th birthday party the day after the attack.

One cousin who attended the party said: “we knew something as wrong because he as really close to his gran and wouldn’t have missed her party for anything.”

Many mothers affected by postnatal depression (PND) are left feeling unsupported by health services and turn to online sources to provide them with much needed support.

A postnatal depression scale questionnaire carried out by 4Children in Edinburgh has revealed that up to 35,000 women each year battle postnatal depression without receiving a diagnosis or any treatment.

The survey is based upon the experiences of women, who though were not officially diagnosed with PND believe in retrospect that they might have had it.

According to the results, of the women who visited or were visited by health professionals, a huge 70% were prescribed antidepressants whilst only 41% were offered the option of talking therapies such as counselling.

Though there don’t seem to be any concrete figures that accurately suggest or estimate how many parents may be suffering, the Royal College of psychiatrists believe the figure to be approximately 10% –...

Though only a small percentage of breast cancer sufferers are male, according to research they are feeling increasingly isolated by the NHS, who gear breast cancer treatment heavily towards women.

According to Kate Hunt who works for the public health sciences unit for the Medical Research Council in Glasgow, male breast cancer sufferers are finding that the health service is often quite thoughtless when it comes to the treatment of men.

Hunt was carrying out research for the health talk online website, a site which offers real stories from real patients in a bid to provide a support network for others in a similar situation.

Hunt spoke to 33 men who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, who reported issues such as appointment cards being addressed to a ‘Mrs’ instead of a ‘Mr’, or pharmacists informing males who have come to collect their prescriptions that the drug is intended for females only.

In true self-help book spirit, new findings show that modern women are leaving comfortable marriages in order to pursue their ever elusive ‘true selves’.

Orphanages, jungles and spiritual retreats across the world are rife with 40-something divorcees hoping to find the purpose of their existence in tomorrow morning’s yoga class or barn-raising.

Feminists might call this liberation. 50 years ago divorce was a far bigger taboo than it is now. Very few women were brave enough, or financially independent enough, to pack their bags and leave a safe and secure marriage for bigger things.

Today, 70% of all divorces are instigated by women. Lucy Valentine, 46, is one of them. 6 years ago, she made the decision to leave her beautiful Victorian house, successful career and loving husband forever. She bought a Harley Davidson and rode it across Australia and New Zealand, taught English in Costa Rica and China, worked in a Zambian...

The weather has been ‘bipolar’ this week, a neat and tidy friend has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and someone who tried to chat you up in a bar was as awkward as someone with Asperger’s.

Using mental health terms as if they are clichés has become commonplace in the past few years, we hear them dropped into conversation as though they are just any other word, but as much as the people who say them don’t do so out of malice, are they accurate and more importantly, are they acceptable?

Much research has suggested that using mental health terms to describe personality traits is becoming increasingly common, with a 2007 study of the terms “schizophrenia” and “schizophrenic” in the UK media revealing that 11% of the references were metaphorical.

According to consultant psychiatrist Arun Chopra who works at Queen’s Medical Centre based in Nottingham, using these terms so flippantly can have a negative impact upon...